Rohingyas flee Myanmar as violence escalates

Thousands of Rohingyas fleeing Myanmar crowded along the Bangladesh border on Saturday as clashes in Rakhine State between suspected Rohingya extremists and Myanmar security forces continued for the second day.
Several hundred Rohingyas, meanwhile, entered Bangladesh dodging strengthened security and members of Bangladesh Coast Guard and Border Guard Bangladesh sent back at least 81 Rohingyas.
Cox’s Bazar police arrested 67 Myanmar nationals from Ukhiya upazila while a Rohingya youth, Mohammad Musa, succumbed to bullet injuries, sustained in Myanmar clash, at Chittagong Medical College Hospital on Saturday morning.
Myanmar border police fired their nationals fleeing their homeland in fear of retaliation by security forces and more communal attacks, near Toombro border on the Naf River in Bandarban, said border guard officials.
Bangladeshis living along the border at Ghumdum border point said that they heard sounds they believed from gunshots being fired in the bordering areas of Myanmar in the afternoon.
The Bangladesh government summoned Myanmar chargé d’affaires at the foreign ministry and expressed serious concern about the possibility of influx of thousands of Myanmar nationals as a consequence of clashes inside bordering Rakhine State, said officials.
Bloodshed continued on Saturday with residents
fleeing remote villages to the town of Maungdaw only to be greeted with more violence there, reported Agence France-Presse.
It said that terrified civilians tried to flee remote villages in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State for Bangladesh Saturday afternoon, as clashes which killed scores continued between suspected Rohingya extremists and Myanmar security forces.
Violence has again scorched through the region, leaving at least 92 dead since early Friday and forcing thousands of ethnic minority Rohingyas and Rakhines to flee their homes.
On Saturday, up to 2,000 displaced Rohingya women and children gathered at the ‘zero line’ marking the border with Bangladesh but were denied entry, according to authorities.
In desperate scenes, many were left without shelter in a no-man’s land on the border, or forced to return to villages trapping them in between suspected extremists and security forces.
‘All of them were women and children. Seeing the [border guard] patrol, they did not enter Bangladesh,’ head of the border guard for Ukhia town Manzurul Hassan Khan told AFP.
Myanmar security forces fired mortars and machine guns at terrified Rohingya villagers fleeing northern Rakhine State for Bangladesh on Saturday. 
An AFP reporter at Ghumdhum border post counted over a dozen mortar shells and countless machine gun rounds fired by Myanmar security forces in nearby hills onto a large group of Rohingya desperately trying to cross.
It was not immediately clear if any were hit, but civilians scattered to evade the barrage.
‘They have fired on civilians, mostly women and children, hiding in the hills near the zero line,’ border guard station chief Manzurul Hassan Khan confirmed.
‘They fired machine guns and mortar shells suddenly, targeting the civilians. They have not consulted with the BGB,’ he added.
Three village officials were killed overnight near Maungdaw, according to the office of Myanmar State Counsellor Suu Kyi.
Later, residents inside the town, close to the Bangladesh border, ran for safety as gun shots rang out as a local administration office came under attack by extremists.
‘Our situation is urgent,’ Myint Kyaing, a Maungdaw administrative officer told AFP Saturday afternoon before hanging up the phone.
Rakhine Buddhists armed themselves with knives and sticks as tension soared in a town that had repeatedly been the epicentre of religious violence since 2012.
With panic spreading, scores of Hindu villagers fled from surrounding villages to Maungdaw after rumours spread that they were also a target for the extremists.
‘There is no security in the villages,’ Buthon, a Hindu man in Maungdaw told AFP.
Reuters added that about 1,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing escalating violence in Myanmar had been halted at the border with Bangladesh, Bangladeshi security officials said on Saturday.
As both sides were bracing for more violence, about 1,000 Rohingyas arrived at the Naf River separating Myanmar and Bangladesh and got stranded there, a Bangladeshi border guard and Cox’s Bazar deputy commissioner Mohammad Ali Hossain told Reuters.
‘Many Rohingya people are trying to enter Bangladesh, but we have a zero tolerance policy––no one will be allowed,’ said Mohammad Ali Hossain.
Coast Guard sent a boat carrying 56 Rohingyas, who tried to enter Bangladesh through Noyapara of Teknaf upazila, back to Myanmar early Saturday, said Coast Guard lieutenant commander Jafar Imam Sajib.
Whykong police camp detained 17 Rohingyas who entered Bangladesh illegally and handed them over to border guards.
Border guard battalion-2 commanding officer lieutenant colonel SM Ariful Islam said that after providing humanitarian aid, they sent back 17 Rohingyas.
Another eight Rohingyas were sent back to their home land from Tumbro border Saturday morning.
The district administration had an emergency meeting on Rohingya issue at Ukhia and Teknaf. 
The union parishad members and chairmen who attended the meeting were asked to follow government instructions so that no Rohingya could enter Bangladesh.
The deputy commissioner at the meetings said that no Rohingya would be allowed to enter Bangladesh and warned that action would be taken against people helping Rohingyas to enter Bangladesh.
A large part of the crowd of Rohingyas, many with their belongings, including domestic animals, could be seen from Bangladesh side of the border.
Rohingya refugee leaders in Bangladesh said that about 4,000 Rohingya refugees already entered Bangladesh in August after security forces started a ‘clearance operation’ in Rakhine State. 
A Rohingya muslim Hamid Hossain, who sneaked into Bangladesh on Saturday, said that all seven members of his family came to Bangladesh to save life.
Hundreds of Rohingyas, however, sneaked into Bangladesh at Anjimonpara of Palongkhali union of Ukhia, said local people.
‘All 110 families fled from our village in Kutheepin in Mynamar heading for Bangladesh as the village was destroyed in firing and arson,’ he said.
Ukhia police officer-in-charge Abul Khair said that they detained 67 Myanmar nationals from Darghadil on Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf road.
Rohingya leader at Kutupalang camp Mohammad Shamsul Alam claimed that two Rohingya youths Mohammad Haroon and Mohammad Yakub, who sustained bullet injuries in Mynamar clash on Friday, died at a clinic run by Medecins Sans Frontieres.
Local authorities could not confirm the news.
New Age correspondent in Bandarban reported that Myanmar border guard police opened fire at Rohingyas waiting at Toombro border to cross the Naf River in Bandarban.
The incident took place at the no man’s land of the river near the border under Naikhyangchari upazila at about 1:15pm, Border Guard Bangladesh battalion-34 director lieutenant colonel Manjurul Ahsan Khan told reporters. 
He said that it could not be confirmed if there was any casualties.
Border guard director general Major General Abul Hossain said that five bullets were fired at Bangladesh from Myanmar side without impacting anything along Ghumghum border.
‘We protested against the firing. They [the Myanmar border force] apologised for this. We are on alert,’ he added

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net